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The Challenge
A leading 3PL managing international shipments was facing a critical operational blind spot: they had no real-time visibility into where their containers were or when they were ready for pickup.
The entire process was manual. Carriers had to contact agents by phone or email to get shipment status updates. Those agents would then relay the information to the 3PL or freight forwarder, and everyone had to wait for a response. When shipments arrived at transitory ports, containers would sit at the docks accumulating demurrage fees that increased daily. Without a clear timeline or centralized tracking, the 3PL had no way to prioritize pickups or understand which containers were costing the most.
The financial impact was severe. One of their clients was paying up to $200,000 USD per day in demurrage, getting into a total of 2 million USD by the time we took action, largely because no one knew the container was ready for pickup until it was too late. The company knew the daily fee amounts but had no way to differentiate which containers were accumulating the highest costs or how many days each had been sitting at port.
The core issues were clear:
- Complete reliance on manual communication (phone, email) for shipment updates.
- No centralized view of container status, port days, or demurrage exposure.
- Human error leading to missed pickups and escalating penalties.
- Wait times of 8 to 12 hours to receive basic shipment information.
The Solution
Expert Tech Talent for logistics leveraged its deep logistics expertise to design and build an automated shipment visibility platform that connected primary data sources directly into the 3PL’s day-to-day operations, eliminating the need for manual lookups, phone calls, and email chains entirely.
The Result
By connecting primary shipment data sources with automation, DevGurus transformed an operation that was entirely dependent on manual communication into a real-time, self-service visibility platform.
The 3PL and their clients now have instant access to the information they need, customized to their operations and connected to all interested parties automatically.
Centralized Shipment Visibility
Using publicly available carrier and port data combined with the client’s container lists, DevGurus built a platform that centralized all shipment information in one place, accessible to both the 3PL and their end clients. The system provided real-time visualization of: Days on port for each container. Pending demurrage fees and daily cost accumulation. Additional charges based on the nature of the container (e.g., refrigerated, hazardous). Last-mile status and pickup readiness.
Automated Notifications & Communication
The platform automated all communication between supply chain partners. Anytime a shipment reaches a critical milestone arrival at port, customs clearance, ready for pickup. The system automatically notified all interested parties via the platform, email, or messaging. No human intervention. No delays.
AI-Powered Intelligence
With integrated AI capabilities to further enhance the platform: AI-driven data extraction and automated notification triggers. AI agents built to answer shipment status questions in real time. AI-assisted development of internal communication SOPs for the client’s operations team.
Data Analytics & Business Intelligence
Beyond visibility, we built data pipelines feeding into dashboards (Tableau, Power BI, and Sigma) that gave the 3PL actionable KPIs including: Shipment transit time from origin to destination, broken down by carrier. Delay percentage by carrier. Delay percentage by route. The data architecture used Databricks for centralization and analytics, Python for automation pipelines, and full-stack development for the front-end and back-end of the visibility platform.
The Result
The logistics industry is still heavily manual, but it doesn’t have to be. TMS platforms are full of unstructured data going unused, and critical information like demurrage exposure often lives in silos.
DevGurus combines deep logistics domain expertise with modern engineering to unlock that data, automate communication, and build visibility tools that plug directly into existing operations.
Expertise in logistics allows us to connect the primary sources for shipment events with automation improving visualization and communication across the entire supply chain.
Ready to Bring Visibility to Your Logistics Operations?
Let DevGurus by Avanza design, build, and deploy the tech your operations need.
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